The invention includes the use of energy conditioning assemblies, pathway intersections and layered architectures such as those described and claimed in commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 5,909,350, U.S. Pat. No. 6,018,448, and currently pending U.S. patent application, Ser. No. 09/008,769, all incorporated herein by reference. A series of preferred embodiments are directed to energy conditioning that occurs when unenergized elements are combined and electrified to act as part of a circuit that provides conditioned energy to an integrated circuit or any other active energy loads within electronic equipment or systems. The present invention also provides electrical interference suppression and/or shielding for improved performance of active electronic components located within larger electronic systems.
The majority of electronic equipment produced presently, and in particular computers, communication systems, military surveillance equipment, stereo and home entertainment equipiments, televisions and other appliance include miniaturized components to perform new high speed functions and electrical interconnections which according to the materials from which they are made or their mere size are very susceptible to stray electrical energy created by electromagnetic interference or voltage transients occurring on electrical lines. Voltage transients can severely damage or destroy such micro-electronic components or contacts thereby rendering the electronic equipment inoperative, and requiring extensive repair and/or replacement at great cost. Based upon the foregoing there was found a need to provide a multi-functioning electronic component architecture which attenuates electromagnetic emissions resulting from differential and common mode currents flowing within electronic circuits, single lines, pairs of lines and multiple twisted pairs. Such multi-functioning electronic components are the subject of commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 5,909,350 (application Ser. No. 08/841,940), continuation-in-part application Ser. No. 09/008,769, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,018,448 (continuation-in-part application Ser. No. 09/056,379), all incorporated herein by reference.
While the above referenced electronic components accomplish their respective tasks, usage of such components has been limited for a number of reasons. First, the number of such components required continues to increase as applications, such as data buses, continue to grow. In addition, as the number of required components grows, so does the physical size of multi-component packages. Second, by their nature the electronic components referred to are delicate structures which do not handle physical stress well. During the manufacture of electronic products a number of mechanical stresses associated with handling and soldering can damage the components.
Another drawback to using the referenced electronic components is that it becomes very tedious to manually handle and mount the components on electronic products being assembled. This often time translates into lower product yields and added expense due to broken or misconnected components. A further disadvantage to some of the components is that they include leads for thru-hole insertion. Physical stressing, bending or applying torque to the leads can cause a failure in the final product, either immediately or later thereby affecting the products overall reliability.
Another source of electrical noise found in prior art differential mode filters, common mode filters and capacitor decouplers is caused by imperfections in the capacitors that make up the filters and decouplers. The effects of these imperfections are commonly referred to as parasitic effects. Parasitic or non-ideal capacitor behavior manifests itself in the form of resistive and inductive elements, nonlinearity and dielectric memory. The four most common effects are leakage or parallel resistance, equivalent series resistance (ESR), equivalent series inductance (ESL) and dielectric absorption. The equivalent series resistance (ESR) of a capacitor is the resistance of the capacitor leads in series with the equivalent resistance of the capacitor plates. ESR causes the capacitor to dissipate power during high flowing ac currents. The equivalent series inductance (ESL) of a capacitor is the inductance of the capacitor leads in series with the equivalent inductance of the capacitor plates. An additional form of parasitic that goes beyond the component itself is stray capacitance which is attributed to the attachment of the capacitor element within an electrical circuit. Stray capacitors are formed when two conductors are in close proximity to each other and are not shorted together or screened by a Faraday shield. Stray capacitance usually occurs between parallel traces on a PC board or between traces/planes on opposite sides of a PC board. Stray capacitance can cause problems such as increased noise and decreased frequency response.
Several other sources of electrical noise include cross talk and ground bounce. Cross talk in most connectors or carriers is usually the result of mutual inductance between two adjacent lines rather than from parasitic capacitance and occurs when signal currents follow the path of least inductance, especially at high frequencies, and return or couple onto nearby conductors such as conductive tracks positioned parallel with or underneath the signal current track. Ground bounce is caused by shifts in the internal ground reference voltage due to output switching of a component. Ground bounce causes false signals in logic inputs when a device output switches from one state to another. It has been found that the multi-functioning electronic components, specifically the differential and common mode filters and decouplers disclosed in the above referenced, commonly owned U.S. patent applications, provide improved performance when coupled or used with an enlarged ground shield that can substantially decrease or reduce and in some cases can eliminate capacitor parasitics, stray capacitance, mutual inductive coupling between two opposing conductors, various forms of cross talk and ground bounce.
Therefore, in light of the foregoing deficiencies in the prior art, the applicant""s invention is herein presented.
Based upon the foregoing, there has been found a need to provide a component carrier which is less susceptible to mechanical stresses and shock, more easily assembled, surface mountable and capable of being used in automated assembly.
It is therefore a main object of the present invention to provide a component carrier for maintaining one or more surface mount components.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a component carrier which is less susceptible to mechanical stresses imparted upon components during various manufacturing processes.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a component carrier having an enhanced ground surface which improves the functional characteristics of surface mount components coupled to the component carrier.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a component carrier adapted specifically to receive a differential and common mode filter and decoupler as disclosed in the above referenced, commonly owned pending U.S. patent applications.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a component carrier having an enhanced ground surface which improves the functional characteristics of differential and common mode filters and decouplers as disclosed in the above referenced, commonly owned pending U.S. patent applications.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an energy conditioning circuit assembly that combines a component carrier with a differential and common mode filter and decoupler as disclosed in the above referenced, commonly owned pending U.S. patent applications to thereby provide simultaneous filtering of common and differential mode interference, suppression of parasitic or stray capacitance, mutual inductive coupling between two adjacent conductors and circuit decoupling from a single assembly.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an integrated circuit construction for a differential and common mode filter coupled to the power bus lines servicing the integrated circuit.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention are accomplished through the use of various embodiments of a component carrier which receives either a thru-hole or surface mount differential and common mode filter and decoupler as disclosed in the above referenced, commonly owned U.S. patents and pending U.S. patent applications (hereinafter referred to as xe2x80x9cdifferential and common mode filterxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9clayered architecturexe2x80x9d).
One embodiment consists of a plate of insulating material, also referred to as a planar insulator, having a plurality of apertures for accepting the leads of a thru-hole differential and common mode filter. Another embodiment consists of a surface mount component carrier comprised of a disk of insulating material having at least two apertures. The disk is substantially covered by a metalized or conductive ground surface and includes at least two conductive pads surrounding the apertures, and insulating bands which surround each conductive pad. The insulating bands separate and electrically isolate the conductive pads from the metalized ground surface. A surface mount component, such as a differential and common mode filter, is positioned lengthwise between the two conductive pads and operably coupled to the carrier. Once the surface mount component is coupled to the carrier, the combination can be manipulated, either manually or through various types of automated equipment, without subjecting the surface mount component to mechanical and physical stresses normally associated with the handling of miniature components. The carrier also provides the added benefit of improved shielding from electromagnetic interference and over voltage dissipation due to the surface area of the metalized ground surface.
The same concept for the above described carrier is also incorporated into several alternate embodiments, either independently, embedded within electronic connectors or configured for use with electric motors. The overall configuration and electrical characteristics of the concepts underlying the present inventions are also described as a conditioning assembly (also referred to as an energy conditioning circuit assembly or xe2x80x9cECCAxe2x80x9d) which encompasses the combination of differential and common mode filters and component carriers optimized for such filters.
These along with other objects and advantages of the present invention will become more readily apparent from a reading of the detailed description taken in conjunction with the drawings and the claims.